Resources
Sign up for news alerts
Jobs
Contact
Chinese language site
PRESS RELEASE
19 August 2011
W G Sebald remembered at Edinburgh International Book Festival
The co-editor of a new book on W G Sebald, Jo Catling, is to take part in a discussion at the Edinburgh Literary Festival on the work of her University of East Anglia colleague.
‘Exploring W G Sebald: Writing, Landscape and Memory’ takes place on Monday 29 August, as part of the Legends of Modern Literature series of events. Jo Catling worked with Sebald at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and has translated several of his essays (to appear next year as A Place in the Country, published by Penguin). Also speaking are Daniel Medin, who has written a book on Sebald's debt to the work of Kafka, and Geoff Dyer, who has brilliantly compared Sebald with the Austrian author Thomas Bernhard. This follows another talk from writer Will Self on ‘W G Sebald: An Enduring Legacy’ on Sunday 28 August.
Sebald, a German writer and academic, is now widely considered one of the greatest contemporary writers. His works, perhaps even better known in their English translations, include The Emigrants, The Rings of Saturn and Austerlitz.
Sebald settled in England in 1970 with a lectureship at UEA, was appointed to a chair of European literature in 1987, and in 1989 became the founding director of the British Centre for Literary Translation.
Ten years after Sebald’s untimely death in a car accident sees the publication of an exciting new book, Saturn’s Moons: A W.G. Sebald Handbook, edited by Jo Catling (School of Literature and Creative Writing, UEA) and Richard Hibbitt (School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Leeds).
The editors and contributors were allowed access to Sebald’s literary Nachlass and library, and as a result the book brings together a wealth of new critical and visual material on his life and works, covering the many facets and phases of his literary and academic careers. There are also a number of rediscovered short pieces by Sebald and hitherto unpublished interviews.
Jo Catling commented: “Just as it was a great privilege to teach German literature alongside W G (“Max”) Sebald at UEA, so too it has been to work on Saturn’s Moons, which combines perceptive scholarship with extensive bibliographical material, affording new insights into his literary and academic career.”
Richard Hibbitt added: “We are extremely grateful to the Sebald estate for their generous support of this project, which has allowed us to further demonstrate the breadth, depth and genre-defying appeal of this remarkable writer.”
Contributors include a number of Sebald’s colleagues, friends and students: Mark Anderson, Anthea Bell, Ulrich von Bülow, Jo Catling, Michael Hulse, Florian Radvan, Uwe Schütte, Clive Scott, Richard Sheppard, Gordon Turner, Stephen Watts and Luke Williams.
Saturn's Moons: A W. G. Sebald Handbook
Edited by Jo Catling and Richard Hibbitt
Legenda: Oxford, 2011 £45.00 (US$89.50) Hardback 692pp ISBN-13: 978 1 906540 02 9
Legenda is one of the leading imprints for new scholarly work in the modern humanities. The series was founded in 1995 by Malcolm Bowie (1943–2007) with the aim of forming a scholarly press that would be governed by academics, be open to interdisciplinary work, and would make available the results of advanced research by both new and established scholars. Legenda has formed partnerships with the Society for French Studies, the Modern Humanities Research Association, and the British Comparative Literature Association. Following rapid growth of the series, in 2004, the MHRA and Maney Publishing assumed joint responsibility for the series, which now also includes the Italian Perspectives series. Legenda remains true today to its original aim, providing an essential outlet for the work of young and senior researchers alike.
www.legenda.mhra.org.uk
